Signal Quality - VCR to ADVC-55 to iMac
 

Hi, Several weeks ago I bought a brand new ADVC-55 from Amazon and whilst it works the picture quality is far from what I was expecting.

I have a high quality VCR (Panasonic NV-HS100) with TBC etc and am basing my complaint on the quality on the test signal output by the VCR.

When run through the ADVC-55 the test patterns vertical lines are wavy.

I have tried running the Canopus through both a 27" iMac and a Macbook Pro with the same effect.

I have read several articles on here regarding signal quality and as a result have tried many of the suggestions which includes:

Using S-Video
Buying a new high quality shielded S-Video cable
Tried at several different power outlets around the house.
All equipment is on same power circuit
Made sure there were no cell/mobile phones nearby.
Have tried via other connections also i.e Scart.
Tried with and without power adapter
Tried on multiple computers

None of these have made any difference.

I have tried hooking the VCR directly up to a portable TV and the signal is much improved even though its only via scart.

So, what now? I have a couple of days left on my returns policy with Amazon and don't know whether to return or not.

By the way, I am using both iMovie and Final Cut Pro X on the Mac.

Any thoughts? Is it faulty? Would a replacement be any better? If not what other piece of kit would help?

Is the VCR TBC on?

Yes it is! But it makes little difference to the wave if its on or not.

That's dot crawl. It may be the Canopus box doing it.

Yeah, thats what I've been trying to establish ie. Whether its a fault of my particular Canopus or just what I should expect from the device. I still have a few days left to return and am thinking of sending it back for another unit.

I have no idea what other alternatives there are for Mac users than these Canopus devices.

Elgato EyeTV: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=digitalfaq-20

Older 250 may work better: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=digitalfaq-20 (MPEG hardware)

A friend has that, and I've seen his work -- looks good.
It records in MPEG-2 for SD analog content.

:) I already have one of those but have been told by others that they don't compare to the Canopus.

The Canopus will look worse.
It's not as bad for PAL -- you have 4:2:0 chroma, not lousy 4:1:1 like NTSC.

That's the opposite to all the other comments I've read on this. I guess I need to do a comparison, just need to find the damn Elgato breakout cable.

How many were from professional video folks that work with old tapes every day?
And how many were John Q. Nobody that "likes" it without having anything to compare it to, or really has any clue about video?

That's the problem with online reviews. You need to vet the reviewer just as much as the item in question. ;)

Point taken - Don't want you to feel I was questioning your view. I value the opinions of the folks on this site. They are clearly knowledgable folks. It's just a steep learning curve for noobs like me.

get a cheap used Window PC and and ATI capture card (also very cheap)and you will be way better off.
Macs just cant hold a candle to Windows for video capture

I moved away from Windows and PC's about 7 years ago and honestly you couldn't pay me to go back. I'll make do with the best I can get on the Mac :)

OK so I picked up the TBC I referred to previously and have been playing around a little.

First Off - I managed to find the breakout cable for my Elgato EyeTV Hybrid and have been comparing that to the ADVC-55. To my surprise I am finding that the Eye TV is at least as good as the ADVC-55. However, I am still getting some issues with the signal.

I have run both through the TBC and I think there is definitely some improvement in the picture.

So, my current thinking is to return the ADVC-55 tomorrow and try and make use of the Eye TV.

That will give me £135 to play with and I'm thinking of getting a more upto date TBC like the Voodoo suggested (the one I picked up today sounds like an aeroplane or something, its that noisy). I need to do some research on model etc and see what is available here in UK.

PS: The guy who sold me the TBC gave me an old Panasonic Monitor to test my VCR signal with. So I'll be picking up some cables tomorrow and giving that a go too.

you are very limited with a mac
if you a dead set against a windows pc you could just use an LSI Chipset JVC DVD recorder instead

Capture may be limited but I suspect that the post processing will be more than fine. I want the ability to tweak my recordings for colour balance, exposure etc so recortding direct to DVD isn't somethign I want to do.

Ordered a stand alone TBC
 

Well I have just placed an order for the AVT-8710 TBC and it should be arriving tomorrow. Looking forward to checking it out and seeing if it can resolve/improve my signal/picture issues.